A Timer Built for Screen Capture
Most countdown timers are built for the person staring at them. This one is built for the camera pointed at the screen. The display is large, the background is optional, and the digits are set in a monospaced font so they don't jitter as they count. Every design choice serves the same question: does this look clean on a live stream?
It works as a stream countdown timer in OBS Studio, Streamlabs, XSplit, or anything that supports browser sources. No plugins to install. No desktop app to keep updated. Configure it in the browser, copy a URL, paste it into your streaming software. Done.
OBS Browser Source Setup
Configure your timer settings above (duration, message, color, font size, background). Click "Copy Embed URL." That URL contains every setting you chose, encoded as query parameters.
In OBS Studio, open the scene where you want the timer. Click the + under Sources, choose Browser, and name it something useful ("Starting Soon Timer," not "Browser Source 4"). Paste the embed URL into the URL field. Set width to 800 and height to 400 as a starting point. Check "Shutdown source when not visible" to save CPU when the scene isn't active.
If you're using a transparent countdown overlay, also check "Refresh browser when scene becomes active" so the timer restarts cleanly each time you switch to that scene. The OBS browser source timer auto-starts on load, so no need to click anything once it's embedded.
Bookmark the configured URL or save it in a text file. Every setting lives in the link. You can reuse the same browser source across multiple scenes, or create separate ones with different durations and messages.
Starting Soon Countdowns
The classic use case. You're setting up, adjusting audio levels, waiting for viewers to arrive. A starting soon timer for Twitch (or YouTube, or Kick) tells early arrivals exactly when things begin. Five minutes is the standard. Ten if you like to build anticipation or if your chat needs warm-up time.
Set the message to "Starting soon..." using the preset button, or write something specific to your stream. "Raid night starts in..." works. "Be right with you" works. Keep it short. The message displays below the digits, and long sentences look cramped at stream resolution.
BRB and Break Timers
Viewers leave when they don't know how long you'll be gone. A BRB timer for stream solves that. Two to three minutes for a quick break. Ten to fifteen for a proper one. The countdown gives people a reason to stay instead of clicking away to someone else's channel.
The "BRB" and "Break" message presets are one tap. Swap the duration, copy a new embed URL, and set up a separate OBS browser source for your BRB scene. Having dedicated sources for "starting soon" and "BRB" saves you from reconfiguring mid-stream.
Count-Up Mode for Subathons and Marathons
Switch the direction toggle to "Up" and the timer counts elapsed time from zero with no upper limit. This is the subathon timer setup: start it when the event begins and let it run for as long as the stream lasts. Works equally well for charity marathon streams, 24-hour challenges, or any broadcast where the point is how long you've been going.
Count-up mode has no alarm (there's no target to hit). The timer just keeps climbing. It runs in a Web Worker, so browser throttling won't cause drift even if the tab loses focus for hours.
Transparent Overlay Setup
Toggle "Transparent BG" before copying the embed URL. The timer digits and message will render with no background, floating over whatever is behind them in your OBS scene. The stream-embed page sends no background color, so OBS composites it cleanly.
Use the transparent countdown overlay when the timer shares the screen with gameplay or a camera feed. Use the solid background when the timer is the entire scene (starting soon screens, BRB screens). Solid backgrounds also hide any encoding artifacts that show up around thin text on dark scenes at lower bitrates.
If the digits are hard to read over busy visuals, pick a bolder color (white or yellow tend to cut through) and bump the font size to XL. Or add a color source behind the timer in OBS with reduced opacity as a backing panel.
Customization Tips
Seven color presets cover the common streaming palettes: teal, white, blue, red, yellow, purple, orange. If your brand uses a specific hex color, click the rainbow swatch at the end of the color row to pick it exactly. The timer, message, and active UI elements all follow the color you choose.
Font size matters more than you'd expect. M works for small corner overlays or multi-element scenes. L is the default, good for dedicated timer scenes at 1080p. XL fills the frame and reads clearly even on mobile viewers' tiny screens. Test at your stream's output resolution before going live. What looks right in the setup panel might need a size adjustment once it's composited into your actual scene layout.
Free Stream Timer, No Watermark
No account to create. No watermark stamped on your stream. No "powered by" badge. No premium tier that unlocks the features you actually need. The embed URL is a free stream timer with no watermark, and it stays that way. Configure it, copy it, forget about it until you need to change something.